31 Shots of Shock: #29 – ‘The Upper Berth’ by F. Marion Crawford

*Title: The Upper Berth by F. Marion Crawford
Date Read: 29 October 2009
Available Online?: YES (Note – this page contains two stories. It’s only the first one that’s The Upper Berth)
Briefly: With a ‘meeting’ having reached its stale and uneventful twilight, Brisbane decides to liven up proceedings by recounting the tale of his passage across [...]

31 Shots of Shock: #28 – ‘An account of some strange disturbances in Aungier Street’ by J. S. Le Fanu

*Title: An account of some strange disturbances in Aungier Street by J. S. Le Fanu
Date Read: 28 October 2009
Available Online?: YES
Briefly: To save on rent and to reside closer to their lecture venues, two cousins – both medical students – chose to live in one of the cousin’s father’s property purchases in the [...]

31 Shots of Shock: #27 – ‘Midnight Express’ by Alfred Noyes

*Title: Midnight Express by Alfred Noyes
Date Read: 27 October 2009
Available Online?: YES
Briefly: In childhood Mortimer is terrified by an image in a book, of a man standing on a deserted railway at night, looking toward the mouth of an open tunnel. So scared is he that he pins two of the pages together so [...]

31 Shots of Shock: #26 – ‘The Old Nurse’s Story’ by Elizabeth Gaskell

*Title: The Old Nurse’s Story by Elizabeth Gaskell
Date Read: 26 October 2009
Available Online?: YES
Briefly: Forced by circumstance to stay at the Manor House at the foot of the Cumberland Fells, an old nursemaid relates a tale of haunting; revealing in the end why an east wing of the manor remains strangely locked.
Afterthoughts: As this [...]

31 Shots of Shock: #25 – ‘Closing Time’ by Neil Gaiman

*Title: Closing Time by Neil Gaiman
Date Read: 25 October 2009
Available Online?: NO
Briefly: The narrator opens this tale by speaking of the Diogenes Club, a back-street drinking establishment which a few members frequent out of normal drinking hours. During one particularly quiet night in the club, the narrator relates the story of when he [...]

31 Shots of Shock: #24 – ‘A Terribly Strange Bed’ by Wilkie Collins

*Title: A Terribly Strange Bed by Wilkie Collins
Date Read: 24 October 2009
Available Online?: YES
Briefly: While visiting Paris, two English gentlemen friends decide to visit a ‘blackguard’ gambling house. One of the gentleman is well up on his luck and gradually, as he gets more and more drunk, he takes more and more winnings. It [...]

31 Shots of Shock: #23 – ‘On the Leads’ by S. Baring-Goulds

*Title: On the Leads by S. Baring-Goulds
Date Read: 23 October 2009
Available Online?: YES
Briefly: Returning from living in Australia, the narrator rents Fernwood Manor, a desirable dwelling set in extensive grounds. Despite a warning from the owner, Framett, that he should not take up residence until December, the narrator and his wife move into Fernwood [...]

31 Shots of Shock: #22 – ‘The Dunwich Horror’ by H. P. Lovecraft

*Title: The Dunwich Horror by H. P. Lovecraft
Date Read: 22 October 2009
Available Online?: YES
Briefly: This lengthy tale concerns the strange unearthly events which took place in the small rural village of Dunwich, Massachusetts, in the early decades of the twentieth-century. In particular in concentrates on the enigmatic Whateley family and the rumours of their [...]

31 Shots of Shock: #21 – ‘The Cafe of Terror’ by E. Phillips Oppenheim

*Title: The Cafe of Terror by E. Phillips Oppenheim
Date Read: 21 October 2009
Available Online?: YES
Briefly: Tired by the unacquainted effort of hiking up hills, tour guide Billingham suggests to the Marquis that they should rest at a dilapidated and remote cafe set on the edge of the woods. The group enter the cafe to [...]

31 Shots of Shock: #20 – ‘The Kit Bag’ by Algernon Blackwood

*Title: The Kit Bag by Algernon Blackwood
Date Read: 20 October 2009
Available Online?: YES (PDF)
Briefly: Following a rather grisly court case in which the defence managed to win a plea of insanity for murderer John Turk, the criminal KC’s secretary, Johnson, prepares for a skiing trip to the Alps. He sets about packing his kit [...]

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